Post navigation

Cheese in the Trap: Episode 6 Recap

It’s hard to believe we’re only at episode 6! So much happens, and we meet a new character who has been hiding in the wings. It’s interesting how this drama skips around in the timeline so much, even though certain events seem like they happen on consecutive days. But weeks and months pass, and there is a lot of the school year and summer break that we don’t see for sure.

Seol finds herself sitting at a long formal dining table, across from Jung who’s clad in a formal suit. He’s not happy with her for misunderstanding so much about him. Granted, they may have started off on the wrong foot and he may have made mistakes, but she kept making snap judgments of him while he helped her with the scholarship, the English academy, and a summer job. So how much more does she want from him? How much more perfect must he be?

But that’s the thing – Seol doesn’t want all of this. Well, she does, but not in this way. Nevertheless, with every attack Jung makes, the table grows longer and longer, and the distance between them grows wider. Will they ever get over this and become close?

Seol wakes up to a new text message from Bora, who wants to treat her to celebrate her father getting better. She confesses to her best friend that she hasn’t seen Jung in a while, or spoken to him. Bora thinks she’s being ungrateful; Jung’s done a lot for her, even if his actions might seem a little weird. Seol herself isn’t quite sure she wants to break up with him, as her mind and heart are telling her different things. So she texts Jung with a simple message: “I want to meet and talk.”

In Ho can’t shake off his greedy sister, who constantly texts him asking for more money. He gripes about her aloud, but when Seol catches him at the academy and asks what’s wrong, he replies, “I’m wondering when Dog Fur is going to buy me another meal.” Seol groans – this guy is all about getting meals out of her! Tired of listening to him complain, she finally agrees to buying him today after class.

Meanwhile Jung is at home washing up. He decides to delete all of Seol’s messages, considering at one point to delete her contact info, because this is how he’s trying to get over her. But once her text about meeting up to talk tomorrow comes in, Jung is super excited. Aww… he actually misses her, despite his emotionless face.

In Ho waits outside of the convenience store in the pouring rain, waiting for Seol to show up. Suddenly, he catches a familiar voice on the TV hanging on the convenience store window: it was his former piano mentor. The mentor speaks of finding a new rare talent, and In Ho is suddenly reminded of when he was training under the mentor. He was so good that the mentor reminds him to take piano seriously, and that applause and compliments can be more poisonous than beneficial. When In Ho had his accident, the mentor begged him to undergo rehab, but In Ho couldn’t bring himself to do it.

And now, his mentor’s found another prodigy, and this prodigy has a future – one that In Ho could have had but threw away.

In Ho turns to leave, unable to watch the TV any longer, and spots Seol at the corner with an umbrella. She was watching him watch the TV and wiping away tears, but she pretends that she didn’t see anything. Flustered, In Ho ditches the idea of eating and asks for drinks instead.

They head to the bar near her home and In Ho can’t believe she’s drinking so slowly. Drinking must be one thing she’s not good at. Seol fires back that he must be great at everything but studying. Suddenly, Jung shows up. He had been waiting outside her home ever since he got her text (just a tad too excited and 24 hours early), and then decided to drop by at the bar. He’s not thrilled to see In Ho there, and Seol feels like she’s cheating even though (1) she’s not and (2) she’s supposed to be mad at Jung right now anyways.

In Ho isn’t going anywhere though, since Seol promised to buy him drinks. Well then. Jung plops down beside Seol and asks for another glass, because he’s going to drink too! Immediately the two boys start sniping at each other, and Seol tells the both of them to just shut up. She owed In Ho for a few drinks so it’s not like they’re meeting behind Jung’s back, and she didn’t tell Jung because they were fighting anyways.

In Ho laughs – they fought?! In that case, they might as well break up! He begins to tell Seol all about the pretty girls in Jung’s past and how he broke all their hearts. Seol starts downing more of her soju quickly, feeling that she is inadequate compared to all the girls before. Now getting quite tipsy, Seol asks if Jung ever dated Baek In Ha. Her question is met with a resounding “NO!” Well – that’s one thing the two boys agree on.

In Ho teases that Seol must never had a real relationship before. She probably got dumped by a guy she had a crush on because she followed him everywhere too, right? Jung scolds him for making up rumors and teasing his girlfriend, and the two start threatening to get into a fist fight. Suddenly Seol stands up and yells at them to shut up. Are they in elementary school!? She also wants to make the point that her hair is not like “dog fur” – they’re all “natural curls!”

Jung slowly guides her to her seat again, afraid that she’s going to topple over in her state of drunkenness. Once again, Seol asks if In Ha and Jung dated, and the two boys insist it never happened. And then Seol is out like a lightbulb.

Jung at least is the one to carry her on his back while In Ho carries her bag. He’s not willing to leave Jung alone with a drunk girl, and watches where Jung keeps his hands at at all times. Heh. They’re starting to be a little cute when they bicker. A water bottle comes flying out of nowhere and hits In Ho in the head. It’s Hong Joon! Seol’s brother! He’s been waiting for his sister and yells at the two boys to put his sister down. But the moment she climbs off Jung’s back she’s ready to puke, and now it takes all three guys to rush her to her apartment before she vomits everywhere.

The following morning, Seol wakes up startled to find her brother on the floor next to her. He’s been up for a while now, and is also planning to stay in Korea for a while. After hearing that his parents are struggling with the new restaurant and debts, he couldn’t find a reason to continue studying in the States. At least he’s quite conscientious, and not spoiled at all for being favored over his sister. He did get beat up by the father though for abandoning his studies, so he’s planning to stay with Seol for a bit.

Joon then asks which guy was Seol’s boyfriend – the “model student” (Jung) or the “bad boy” (In Ho)? “I hope not the model student,” Joon mutters. “Because you threw up all over his head.” Seol gasps and covers her mouth in shock – did she really!? But Joon was just kidding! She threw up at the front door instead. Seol grabs a pillow and starts beating the living crap out of her brother. Joon just can’t catch a break with his family, heh.

Seol goes out to find Joo Yong packing up his things. He’s getting ready to move out, even though he won’t be saying goodbye to the landlady. He hopes Seol won’t say anything about his and Heo’s relationship, and Seol promises to keep the secret safe. Aw well, that’s all we’ll see of Joo Yong for now.

She then heads out to meet Jung to apologize for what happened last night. She doesn’t remember much of it but is too embarrassed at the thought of what could have happened. They finally hash out their issues: Seol apologizes for getting angry for what he did to Heo, but she also makes Jung promise to never do something like that again. If he wants to do something that is related to her, he needs to talk to her first. I’m so glad Seol puts her foot down on this, and Jung also appreciates that he’s not in deeper trouble than he could be. She’s choosing to give him the benefit of the doubt and be more understanding this time around.

To make up for the argument, she suggests they eat at the cafe and then catch a movie together.

Meanwhile In Ho senses someone following him as he walks through the neighborhood. He calls out to the person and it’s Sang Keun! He found out where In Ho was because he saw all the flyers with In Ho’s face on it! The bad thing is, their former boss also saw them too and knows where to track In Ho down. In Ho shoos his friend away, refusing to buy Sang Keun a meal (since he barely has enough money for himself) and resigns to the thought that he’ll need to move again. Just when he was starting to like the place, he has to uproot himself and run away from others again.

So when In Ha calls him up for money again, he immediately shuts her down. He won’t be able to send her money for now because he’s leaving again. And he’s going to be changing his number so she can’t contact him again. In Ha asks what kind of trouble he’s gotten into but In Ho doesn’t answer – it’s not like she really cares anyways.

Jung walks Seol home that night, and they realize that summer is coming to an end. The break will end soon, she won’t be going to the English academy anymore, and she’s going to have to move out of her place and go back home. But Jung assures her that they won’t end – they’ll continue seeing each other even when class starts. Seol then gives him a gift. It’s the cheap watch she saw him look at in the trinkets store. Jung’s face is like stone when he looks at it, and Seol feels like he doesn’t like it because it’s too cheap. It doesn’t help that the lamp over her door keeps flickering, obscuring his expression even more. But he ends up hugging her tightly and thanks her for the gift. He really loves it, and he’s actually really happy that he got a gift. And Seol is actually relieved. Okay – this is more of the Jung we need to see.

When Jung gets back home, he excitedly puts on the new watch she gave him and puts away his expensive one. He has a drawer full of expensive watches, but clearly nothing is bringing him more joy than the one she got him.

The next morning, Seol goes to the convenience store by the academy when she hears someone calling out, “Hey Natural Curls!” It’s In Ho’s new nickname for her! After all, she hated “Dog Fur,” right? She yells at him to stop teasing her like that, and In Ho tsks. He raised her to be too confident now. But really, he’s sad that he may no longer see her.

Seol grabs a drink inside, but then quickly hides behind a shelf. Oh Young Gon (Ji Yoon Ho) (who I thought appeared earlier in the series but actually hadn’t) has just walked in to the shop for cigarettes. A flashback reveals that he had made one of her college years a living a hell because he stalked her all the time. Young Gon made it seem like she was just playing hard to get, but in reality Seol just wanted to get away from him. He thinks that she really likes him because he heard from Yoo Jung that she might, and ever since then he’s been pursuing her because he thinks they’re meant to be.

Finally Young Gon leaves, and Seol hurries to pay and head back to the academy. But Young Gon is right around the corner, and he drags her to the side street to “talk.” He’s surprised to see her around (psh) and asks if she remembers him. He took some time off from school because of her, and now he hears that she’s most likely dating Yoo Jung. How could that be? She must be a player, in his mind. Seol screams at him to get away from her, but Young Gon keeps asking why she seduced Jung.

Suddenly Young Gon topples over from a kick in the back. It’s In Ho! Yay! In Ho tells Young Gon to shut up and punches him for being an idiot and bothering Seol. Young Gon is pissed: “Yoo Jung, Kwon Eun Taek, and now this thug? You yell at me for flirting with everyone but look at you. You’re the one who’s flirting with so many men!” (Eun Taek had beaten up Young Gon at one point to protect Seol, and clearly Young Gon has a chip on his shoulder about that.)

In Ho tells Young Gon to skedaddle – there is no way a loser like him is going to be able to get a girl if he keeps up that attitude. Young Gon threatens to sue, but Seol finally finds her voice and says she’ll be the witness and make sure Young Gon goes to jail instead for what he did. Young Gon laughs – one day she’ll be wronged by Jung just like he was, and then they’ll see who’ll really suffer. In Ho chases Young Gon away and then tells Seol to stay away from creeps like him. She also needs to hurry to class, but all she can see is In Ho’s bloody fist from the fight.

Later on, In Ho finds a bag of bandaids and antibiotics in the teacher’s lounge that Seol had left for him. He goes out after her to thank her, but then sees Seol running excitedly towards Jung. Her boyfriend’s come to pick her up! Even though Young Gon’s damning words about Jung are still ringing in her ears, she chooses to ignore them for now. She’s not willing to start up another fight and round of suspicion again.

Jung walks her home to her neighborhood, and when they pass by a dark alleyway, Seol thinks she saw someone. There’s no one there when Jung investigates, but when they reach outside her apartment there’s a lot of hubbub around a police car parked there. One of Seol’s neighbors has reported a peeping Tom looking through her windows and suspects it’s Joo Yong. However when the officer asks Seol to describe her ex-neighbor, it doesn’t match the description the neighbor is describing. (In fact, the description the neighbor provides also matches that of Hong Joon – tall, reddish hair, and wore a hat…but it can’t possibly be Hong Joon.)

Jung helps steer Seol into her apartment away from the crazy neighbor, and suggests he stay with her for the night. After all, Joon is planning to be out all night right? And there’s a peeping Tom, so it might be dangerous. Seol nervously agrees, and when she brings Jung in she’s immediately embarrassed by the mess in her apartment. She offers him a drink, and then nervously changes into her pajamas in the bathroom, leaving Jung alone in her room to look around.

Not knowing what to do, she suggests they watch TV. But because she doesn’t watch often, she’s stuffed her old TV in a makeshift closet under her blankets. Jung helps her pull it out, but they end up falling over each other on the bed. Ooh la la! Hearts pounding, Jung leans in… and Seol covers her mouth! So Jung just whispers in her ear that he doesn’t need to watch TV, and gets up, laughing softly. Eeeee! I don’t know about you, but I kinda squealed…

He puts back some of the blankets, but Seol helps him get a few for a makeshift bed. And then she suggests they go to sleep, and he turn off the lights. Um… okay. Thing is – it’s only 10:30pm.

So they can’t exactly sleep, but they don’t know what to do. Jung then spies a photo album on her bookshelf and asks if he can look through it. It’s all pictures of her when she was younger, where she still had that crazy curly hair. Jung remarks on how close she and Joon must be. While they still are, Seol does feel bad that her younger brother got all the love from the parents and got away with everything he wanted to do. She felt that she needed to work hard to do well because she wasn’t that smart, and that just translated to her incredible work ethic now.

Jung understands where he’s coming from, and he admits that his own father is very lenient and affectionate with others, but strict with him. He has a set of expectations from Jung, and it makes Jung feel suffocated at times. Seems like Jung is jealous of In Ho and In Ha because they got everything they wanted from Mr. Yoo without working hard for it at all. But Jung tells Seol that if he were her father, he’d be very proud of her, because she’s doing great. And that’s really all Seol wants to hear. And that also makes her heart melt a little more for Jung.

Seol curiously asks what Jung must like about her, because she thought for sure that he didn’t like her. And it’s true – he didn’t. Except after seeing her being so selfless all the time with her group mates (working on additional projects with Sang Cheol, Da Young and Min Soo where they wouldn’t really pull their weight) and realizing how similar he is to her, he started to see Seol in a different light earlier in the year. And during another group project where they were supposed to help promote a new bar opening, Jung felt bad that no one wanted to help Seol put up the posters and offered his hand, even though he was sick. Seol doesn’t want his help, since she prefers to do things on her own. She makes him leave and then puts up footprint posters on the sidewalk leading to the bar in the rain. It takes all night, and when she finally returns to the bar she sees that Jung is still there, asleep and shivering in the benches.

Seeing that he can’t be left alone, she covers him up with a jacket and puts a towel on his forehead to lessen the fever. Then when he wakes up, he sees that she’s sleeping on a row of chairs and left an energy drink for him. So he covers her up with the jacket, and then she grabs his fingers unconsciously, holding his hand. Jung is taken aback by the closeness, but he can’t quite pull his hands free of her grasp, even though she’s still sleeping.

Back in the present, Jung still hasn’t answered Seol’s question, and decides to keep it a secret. He throws the question back at her, since he knows she didn’t like him either. She admits that she didn’t quite know what to make of him, especially since she ended up taking the scholarship from him and then he kept asking her out to eat. And then suddenly he wants to date, and now he’s sitting in her room. Seol doesn’t quite have an answer either, and just claims it’s also a secret.

After enough flirting, the two head back to bed, and Jung spectacularly bumps his head against her low table because he’s too tall for her room.

That evening, Young Gon looks up who In Ho is and writes a vindictive post about him on the academy’s website as revenge. It causes enough furor that the director of the academy is forced to fire In Ho the next day. Even though he really likes In Ho (and so do all the little kids he teaches), he can’t have a teacher who was accused of beating someone up outside the school grounds around.

Seol feels terrible and offers to talk to the director on his behalf. After all, it was because of her. But In Ho says it’s alright as he was planning to leave Seoul anyways. It works out, especially since he can’t stay in one place for too long. Seol’s eyes tear up, and he teases her for being sad about seeing him go. And with that, he waves a short farewell.

Comments

In Ho will be back. I know it! It’s so sad to see him leave even though it’s only been six episodes, but that’s how deep of a mark he’s made on Seol’s life – and ours. I love how Seo Kang Joon plays him because he breathes so much life into the character, more than the webtoon could ever do. Seeing how he interacts with the kids and how he even helps defend Seol just makes me go kyaaaaaah!!! and cheer for him.

I don’t know how I feel about the introduction of Young Gon. It’s quite sudden but I guess it’s also because if Young Gon was introduced a lot earlier, we wouldn’t be very far along in Jung and Seol’s relationship. There’s a lot of things about college life that’s cut out, understandably so, but it is a little weird to see how they lightly mention that Young Gon stalked Seol before in college, and then reintroduce him here. He’s clearly a villain, but he seems more like a threat in the webtoon because his story is more fleshed out there. Here he seems to be yet another bump in the road for Seol and Jung’s relationship. Every time they’re about to reach a good point in their relationship, one more person comes in to cast doubt on her mind.

Even though Jung is like Seol’s Daddy Long Legs, everyone keeps hinting at this darker side to him. But we never get the full picture because these people only see flashes of it when Jung “wrongs” them. And when he does, it’s usually because these people are at fault to begin with. They all do something bad, then beg for Jung’s forgiveness when he finds it out, and then resent him for being so mean to them. I want to see the truly dark side to Jung, the fully evil side to him, but it’s possible that it really doesn’t exist either. He just seems cruel to these wrongdoers because it’s his only way of lashing out. After years of being told by his father to be polite and never angry, seeing injustice and exacting payback is the only way he knows how to deal with it.

And then Jung goes on to be fascinated by a cute little snail on the plants outside of Seol’s home. !!!!! It’s like we can never figure him out.

But I really hope to see more of Jung smiling because Park Hae Jin looks so much more handsome when he’s happy with Seol.